Icann Approves non-Latin-script Domain Names

With about one half of current internet users speaking languages with non-Latin scripts, the internet regulator Icann, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has approved a move to support domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.

"Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based," said Icann president and CEO Rod Beckstrom earlier this week.

"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread."

The work required to support the change is described as a "fantastically complicated technical feature"

Source: BBC News

Sweden's Top Level Domain Dissapears Due To Typo

A small but rather far reaching error caused the entire top level domain of Sweden to go missing on Monday, according to Networkworld.com.

"The .SE registry used an incorrectly configured script to update the .se zone, which introduced an error to every single .se domain name," says web monitoring company Pingdom. "We have spoken to a number of industry insiders and what happened is that when updating the data, the script did not add a terminating '.' to the DNS records in the .se zone. That trailing dot is necessary in the settings for DNS to understand that '.se" is the top-level domain. It is a seemingly small detail, but without it, the whole DNS lookup chain broke down."

Sweden's Internet Infrastructure Foundation, which administers the .se domain, issued a statement saying "The cause was an incorrect software update, which, despite our testing procedures were not detected. Thanks to well-functioning surveillance system .SE discovered the error immediately and a new file with the DNS data (zone file) was produced and distributed within one hour. ... The false information that was sent out affected accessibility to all .se domains for a short time. However, there may still be some name servers that have not changed out of misinformation against the real."

The foundation then quickly but quietly posted a help wanted add on Monster.com ;)

ICANN Changes Rules To Allow New Top-Level Domains

At a meeting in Paris this week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann unanimously passed new regulations which means that any company, organization or country will soon be able to apply for top-level domains.

The New York Times has quoted Peter Dengate Thrush, Icann’s chairman as saying:

“We’re expecting a broad range of applicants. Indigenous communities might come forward to protect aspects of their language and culture,”

“We may see a .smith so that all the Smiths in the world will have a place.”

“It’s very exciting to see what people will do with those names,” he said.

While some groups are applauding the move, there are those who think this opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to threats online fights over ownership of names. According to ICANN applications for the new domains would go through an independent review process and companies will have the first priority when it comes to claiming their brand names. Lauren Weinstein, an Internet activist and co-founder of the group People for Internet Responsibility “The potential for mass confusion and fraud and phishing from these new domains seems to be what the primary impact will be for consumers,” and that “I fail to see the positive for consumers in this. It’s all downside.”

Looks like it's the wild wild west all over again! The only possible savior is that ICANN expects the top-level domains to start in the low 6 figure range.

Canadian Internet Registration Authority Registers 1 Millionth .CA Domain Name

The University of Prince Edward Island registered upei.ca, the first .ca domain name in 1988 (the UPEI campus is about 10 minutes from my home). It's taken 20 years but the Canadian Internet Registration Authority is now celebrating it's one millionth domain name registration. UPEI's acting director of Computer Services, Blair Vessey told the CBC in an interview "It was pretty exciting stuff, but again it was so unknown at that time," said Vessey, "None of us could guess what it would eventually turn into. But certainly there was the feeling that OK, this is the beginning of something exciting." The one millionth registration was by Calgary lawyer Brent Krause who registered krauslaw.ca.

Pizza.com Sells For $2.6 Million

Chris Clark, 43, who has been maintaining the domain name pizza.com for $20 annually since 1994 has accepted an offer of $2.6 million from an anonymous bidder after a week-long online auction. After hanging on to the name for 14 years, "I thought, 'Why don't I just try to see what the level of interest is?'" Mr Clark said, and apparently there was interest! His only regret, not buying more domain names in the 90's. Me too! BBC article here.

What's in a domain name?

The Globe and Mail is reporting about the intentions of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to launch 11 test sites today in languages that don't use the Roman alphabet. "Until now, addresses on the World Wide Web used Roman alphabet-based suffixes – .com, .org or .net – even if the rest of the domain name appeared in a language such as Japanese, Russian or Arabic." The move makes sense for those in countries that don't use the Roman alphabet but is it a decision based on pure motives or is it a chance to sell more domain names?

“If I don't do it, and somebody else does it, people will be misguided,” Vadim Sloutsky of torontovka.com, said.

“It forces me as a business owner to go out and book that domain and pay that additional money for that domain name.”

Failing to secure his domain name with Russian Cyrillic letters would open the door for squatters to set up a competing site that could leach traffic from his site. It's always been a bit like the wild west out there, looks like another gold rush might be looming.